Addictive Drums: Does it work for you?

[Clark Kent]

All of my friends seem to be using it and preferring it to any other ivst drum program. Personally I just can't get along with it. My biggest issue is that all the snare drums sound weak to me and I can't get any attack or punch out of them no matter what kind of compression or transient designer setting I've tried. The only way punch was possible was to disable the bottom mic and just use the top snare mic since you can't separate those tracks. I feel like if you could flip the phase switch on the bottom mic you could get some punch but you can't do that and that's a huge mistake IMO. Not a huge fan of the kicks either... Well let me demonstrate comparing it to Superior Drummer.

Addictive:


Superior:


I'm mixing this while I'm writing this message so it's a 5min mix so neither are showing their best capabilities but you'll get my point. I'd love to get Addictive to work in my mixes but at the moment I must be missing something essential... it just doesn't sound realistic at all.

Any of you guys have any experience with Addictive Drums?

 

[~BURNY~]

I think they suck ass but I know a few people on the forum are digging them.

 

[domingooo]

Addictive is great for non extreme metal to me...
It sounds open .. with lots of air and warm... i prefer superior for metal, but for rock, balads is great.
The OH is almost perfect

 

[Noobonic]

Hey Kent think you could send that setup your using for superior drummer? I personally like superior over addictive drums. I've used both but I think superior has a lot more options to work with. There's too much processing on addictive drums and sometimes it doesn't fit well in a mix.

 

[ProgressiveRocco]

well superior is way..superior imo I also own addictive drums and I do use it for some stuff, but 99% of the times I'm stuck with SD..anyway these two mixes sound great with both!

 

[oroinvictus]

I think SD and AD both have their places. I don't really have one preference over the other, though I've found AD to be a little more applicable to non-metal scenarios. Am I the only one here using SSD4? :Spin:

 

[Ihsahn1981]

Not really.. Good hi-hat though!

 

[MetalWorks]

I used it for a while and added the Metal Pack and stuff. It was ok. I always wished I could add my Steven Slate Drum Samples to it. Eventually I just bought Steven Slate Drums 4.0 and I have been happier since.

Addictive Drums actually froze on me quite a bit durring play back.

No Problems or Glitches like that with Slate so far.

 

[jeid]

Superior sounds a lot better here. Wish I had Superior

 

[UncleBob]

If I remember, Addictive Drums only has 15 velocity hits per drum (5 soft, 5 medium and 5 hard) and it's totally noticeable, that plus the fact that to me it has a totally distinct, recognisable sound (and not in a good way) and once you bypass all the junk going on with each drum it doesn't really sound that great, the "room" doesn't really sound that roomy either, more like some delay and reverb trick going on with the close mic samples.

To be fair, most of the Superior packs also have a recognisable sound, as do the Slate drums I guess.

 

[schwinginbatman]

AD is good for non-metal genres, but I feel that the kicks just fall apart in metal situations, and the snares are usable only with outside processing. With it, they're great actually, otherwise, no. Also, there's less drums, less cymbals that can be used at once, and the main crash cymbal grates on my ears. I used to use it with sampling of all the shells, but now I just go SSD and sample as needed. I prefer the sound of the SSD OH's for metal.

 

[Terminus]

I use it and have for a few years. I don't play brutal or thrashy stuff on the norm, so it works pretty well for me with my atmospheric stuff (although I have used it for pure death metal too). I do replace the kick with sneapster samples and I blend sneapster snares in with the original.

Main thing for me is to route it out into the daw and use other processing plugins, I used to do it all within AD but that really restricts the sounds imo. i know Mike (006) has some some killer sounds straight out of the AD plug before though, and I've made a decent preset or two in my day.

 

[MatrixClaw]

In this clip there's honestly no comparison. S2.0 slays Addictive, and that's been my experience with it as well. It has some cool sounds in there, but it's definitely not as flexible. AD sounds so fake in the clip, that kick and snare are just killing it for me

 

[Clark Kent]

AD sounds so fake in the clip, that kick and snare are just killing it for me

Yeah that's my experience as well. It takes me back to the times of Drumkit from Hell where you had to do everything you could to try and cover up that they are not live drums. It simply sounds weird to me.

Hey Kent think you could send that setup your using for superior drummer?

That's actually the stock Metal Machine kit with the 22" kick and Supraphonic snare. Other than that there's no processing inside SD and like I said this was a quick mix so CLA Black 1176 plugin on kick and snare and after that it's just volume balance.

 

[nezvers]

If you really listen into AD shells you'll hear there isn't hit variation... well there is SAME sample in 2 different pitch variation.

 

[JeffTD]

I disagree with the guys who say AD sounds good in a non-metal context; I think it sounds awful for any genre.

 

[Clark Kent]

I disagree with the guys who say AD sounds good in a non-metal context; I think it sounds awful for any genre.

+1. It forces me to concentrate on trying to make it sound more realistic rather than making it sound better for the mix. And it's not genre specific.

 

[schwinginbatman]

+1. It forces me to concentrate on trying to make it sound more realistic rather than making it sound better for the mix. And it's not genre specific.

That is very true. When I used it on a demo, I spent forever trying to get the hi-hat to sound realistic, and even then it didn't work out.

 

[Spectivum]

In these clips the OH actually sounds better to me in AD. e.g. the crash in the last half minute is just annoying in Metal Machine - I don't hear much hit variation, so it is same problem that AD shells seem to have. I was thinking whether I should get MM or SSD4 EX to have a complete drum package where both the shells and cymbals are fine, it is now more likely the latter.

 

[decoy205]

SD 2 for sure. MUUUCH BETTER.